Capitol Notebook: Iowa Gov. Reynolds hears success story, touts public charter schools, school choice during local tour

DES MOINES — Chase Williams said he felt lost and without direction in high school. Then he found Great Oaks High School and Career Center, a public charter school.

Williams now is on a path to graduate early and has a job lined up for when he does. Not yet 18 years old, he’s making plans to buy a car and a house, and create some savings.

Williams was one of the success stories that Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds heard while touring Great Oaks on Thursday in Des Moines, an appearance she organized to highlight the national observation of School Choice Week.

At the event, Reynolds also announced her legislative proposal to align all per-pupil state funding for public schools to charter schools.

Reynolds said public charter schools do not receive the full per-pupil state funding amount that public schools do, and her bill would equalize that. Reynolds’ office in a press release said her bill will enable all per-pupil state funding “to follow a student from their public school district of residence to a public charter school.”

“If that isn’t a testament why we need to let students find the environment that really supports what they need to help them be the best that they can be,” Reynolds said of Williams’ story. “To have him come here and to be supported and really turn that mindset around because somebody believed in him and helped give him some options to change his whole trajectory in life.”

Iowa has 19 state-approved public charter schools, up from just two in 2021.

A 20th may be coming; Great Oaks Director Kris Byam said the school, which already plans a new school in Davenport, is considering adding a third school in Iowa.

“I think it opens up a lot of doors,” Byam said of Reynolds’ proposal. “When we’re looking at some of the barriers and things that students have, the different traumatic experiences, just being able to support them … being able to add more and give some supports where we need it, on that foundational level, I think would be a great thing for us.”

Reynolds’ legislation also will propose allowing public charter school students to access athletics and concurrent enrollment courses through their local public schools, and to allow for charter schools as an option for student teaching assignment, her office said.

Iowa AG Bird sues drug companies over insulin prices

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The state is suing 18 insulin manufacturers and drug companies, accusing them of inflating and manipulating insulin prices, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office said Thursday.

Filed in Polk County District Court, the lawsuit names a mixture of drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers — third-party health care companies that function as intermediaries between insurance providers and drug manufacturers — including Express Scripts, CVS and UnitedHealth Group.

“Artificially increasing prices to profit off people who could die without your product is terrible,” Bird said in a press release. “Diabetics in Iowa deserve a free and fair marketplace, not a rigged market increasing the price of their insulin. We are suing so Iowans can afford the medicine they need to live and to prevent pharmacy benefit managers and insulin manufacturers from gaming the system at the expense of vulnerable people.”

Approximately 300,000 Iowans are living with diabetes and an additional 820,000 Iowans have prediabetes, Bird’s office said.

The lawsuit asks the court to require the drug manufacturers and companies to “stop their unfair and deceptive practices and acts, including the insulin pricing scheme,” and to “pay all restitution, damages, reimbursement, and other relief that may be owed to Iowans who were harmed by the unlawful behavior.”

State looking for summer meal program sponsors

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The Iowa Department of Education seeks sponsors for the state’s federally funded summer food assistance program for low-income children.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds the program, requires all participating states to announce the program’s purpose and eligibility criteria, and seek local sponsors by Feb. 1 each year, the state education department said.

The program uses local sponsors and partner organizations to manage summer meal services, the Iowa Department of Education said. Typical sponsors include public and private schools, colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, camps and local government agencies.

To qualify as a site, the meal service in most cases must be either located in a neighborhood where at least 50 percent of children are eligible for free and reduced-price school lunches, or must serve primarily low-income children and not duplicate services already in use by another organization.

Organizations interested in learning how to participate in the program should visit the state’s Summer Food Service Program website at educate.iowa.gov or the USDA Summer Nutrition Programs website at fns.usda.gov.

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